In 1881 Johann Conrad Dietrich and Paul Hermann Dietrich founded a knitting machine company in Plauen named ‘Strickmaschinenfabrik J.C. & H. Dietrich’. As early as 1885 the company traded as Vogtländische Maschinenfabrik AG, or VOMAG. It became a world leading machine maker, and from 1915 it moved into vehicle manufacture with the Regeldreitonner lorry of which more than a thousand examples were produced by the end of the First World War. The company continued to produce lorries, and later buses, until the world recession led to bankruptcy in 1932. The company was absorbed into VOMAG-Betriebs AG in 1933, and from 1938 traded under the name VOMAG-Maschinenfabrik AG. By this time its series production methods were gradually being replaced by assembly lines. Lorries continued to be produced until 1943, by which time they were powered exclusively by wood-gas generators.In 1940 VOMAG was commissioned by the German army to conduct tank repairs, and to begin tank manufacture. VOMAG initially had six buildings for tank production but in 1941 expanded again with the construction of a huge ‘Panzerhalle’ which was finally completed in 1943. VOMAG initially produced the SdKfz9 heavy half-track and the Panzer IV Ausf F and then Ausf G. VOMAG became one of the largest tank manufacturers in the Third Reich. In October 1943 VOMAG produced a prototype of the Jagdpanzer IV in competition with Alkett and won the contract for its production. VOMAG was solely responsible for the standard Jagdpanzer IV (though Alkett later produced a hybrid version in small numbers) and eventually produced at least 1600 examples of all models.Plauen and VOMAG were heavily damaged by an Allied bombing raid in March 1945. After the war VOMAG was dismantled by the Soviet occupiers.